22-08-17 Do you remember

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Spidrift
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by Spidrift »

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl thing did get a bit noticeably overused at one time. Though Hollywood has maybe scaled back on that lately (without destroying Zooey Deschanel's career).

Which said, the big complaint about MPDGs seems to be that they have no inner life of their own, but exist solely to enlighten the repressed male lead. Zii does have some kind of inner life and goals of her own, whereas Gary wouldn't get enlightened if you ran five thousand volts through him. And Erik clearly wanted an MPDG of his own, but didn't know what to do with one...
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samtheman
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by samtheman »

So Zii and Didi might end up being one of the comic's final pairings. Poor Sonya. She might be the only one who doesn't get a "happy ending" that's been promised by Giz.

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edisnooM
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by edisnooM »

Gotta admit, I'm not entirely certain where this is heading at the moment.

I'll echo what others have already said, that these moments seem more akin to "friendship" than "romantic". While I absolutely think that friendship is pretty darned important to a "real" working relationship, in this case I'm not sure these ring entirely true for what is being suggested. Especially since as also noted all these were happening around Zii being "in lust" with Didi, which makes me wonder if that realization may be part of why Zii is crying.

I did also note with amusement that all these activities that Zii seems to be enjoying fall under the umbrella of "geeky" and could easily be attributed to a Gary-mance. I can't help wondering if that is where this is leading, either intentionally or unintentionally on Didi's part.

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worldshaking00
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by worldshaking00 »

samtheman wrote:
Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:36 pm
So Zii and Didi might end up being one of the comic's final pairings. Poor Sonya. She might be the only one who doesn't get a "happy ending" that's been promised by Giz.
I wonder if 'the end' will be like a musical chairs game, or some other game like 'Duck, Duck, Goose!'. I can't see how everyone could reasonably get paired off and still be happy... at least right now. Some of the characters don't even know what they themselves want! Maybe some will just marry their job (I'm looking at you, Peggy & Kiley)?
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samtheman
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by samtheman »

Well Zii wants Didi, Yuki wants Gary, and Matt wants Kiley so that probably means that those three pairings are going to still happen if the creators are going to hold up their "happily ever after" promise but alas creators do lie and break promises because they love trolling the fanbase.

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Optimus Kate
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by Optimus Kate »

leann123 wrote:
Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:28 pm
Then why are you reading this comic? You can come up with "insert guy" manages to capture heard of "insert girl" and find some many examples of it. Whining that this particular scenario is "cliche" and "overused" could be said about so many combination. That's why it's stupid to try and make that argument.
Relax. It's ok for people to have a different opinion without reacting like this. I personally find the MPDG trope to be tired and overplayed -- you might think otherwise. It's cool. I've been reading this comic since strip #3 and I'm not about to quit now. I would just rather see something different, that's all. Whatever happens isn't up to me though and I trust the creators to tell the story they want to tell, regardless of whether or not I like the end.
Spidrift wrote:
Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:47 pm
Hi Kate. Nice to see you back.
Hi Spiddles. I never really left, I felt lurked for a few years. ;) Nice to see you too. I agree the MPDG trope has thankfully lessened a bit these days, thank goodness, and I agree with your assessments of Gary and Zii. It's not a completely MPDG scenario since Zii has way more depth outside of Gary, but it does have similar shades. MPDG-lite maybe? I do agree too that this Zii/DiDi thing seems a bit ham-fisted but I would rather it run its course than the alternative. Besides, I always figured Gary would ultimately end up with Yuki.

JoybuzzerX
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by JoybuzzerX »

Jackass Mask wrote:
Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:15 am
I'm still not buying any actual emotional connection with these two. I'm sure you'll write one together somehow. But, having read this comic since way back when nipples were a regular thing, I never saw a bond like what Didi is describing.
Well, maybe there was supposed to be some emotional connection shown there and they just really really REALLY sucked at showing it?

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Spidrift
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by Spidrift »

samtheman wrote:
Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:36 pm
So Zii and Didi might end up being one of the comic's final pairings. Poor Sonya. She might be the only one who doesn't get a "happy ending" that's been promised by Giz.
Ahh, I still have a huge soft spot for Sonya, but she'll be fine. She's an attractive, energetic woman who's smarter than she lets herself believe. She really does love Zii in her way, so getting over that is going to hurt a bit, but let's face it, she loves drama more. The band will keep going (necessary for Zii's happy ending), and she'll always have ways to cause small-scale chaos, which is what she needs. I wouldn't worry for her.
edisnooM wrote:
Wed Aug 23, 2017 12:18 am
I did also note with amusement that all these activities that Zii seems to be enjoying fall under the umbrella of "geeky" and could easily be attributed to a Gary-mance. I can't help wondering if that is where this is leading, either intentionally or unintentionally on Didi's part.
I suspect we're seeing the "geeky" scenes here simply because they were funny, memorable scenes which can each be summed up in a single panel. I wouldn't read too much into that.

What I do notice is that all these scenes are from relatively early in the comic's run. Zii and DiDi bonded as friends very quickly, then drifted apart a bit as they both got distracted by other stuff.
worldshaking00 wrote:
Wed Aug 23, 2017 1:56 am
I wonder if 'the end' will be like a musical chairs game, or some other game like 'Duck, Duck, Goose!'. I can't see how everyone could reasonably get paired off and still be happy... at least right now. Some of the characters don't even know what they themselves want! Maybe some will just marry their job (I'm looking at you, Peggy & Kiley)?
Not everyone has to be in their final lifetime arrangement to get a happy ending. Life goes on, and can be good for singletons too. And as I've said far too often, my personal hopeless-fanboy final pairing is Ruby and Peggy sharing an apartment, 100% platonically, supporting each other and making the world a better place just by being themselves.

People should also note the possibility of final groups larger than two. I have a sporting bet on Zii-Gary-Yuki.
Optimus Kate wrote:
Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:31 am
I agree the MPDG trope has thankfully lessened a bit these days, thank goodness, and I agree with your assessments of Gary and Zii. It's not a completely MPDG scenario since Zii has way more depth outside of Gary, but it does have similar shades. MPDG-lite maybe?
The problem with the MPDG trope is that it reduces the woman to someone who exists to support and enable the man; the problem here is that Gary seems beyond help, which kind of relates to that issue. But it's possible to overdo the criticism; a romcom shouldn't be written off just because the female lead is a bit livelier than the man. And Bringing Up Baby is still a great movie.

(I now keep thinking of SDB as a gender-reversed MPDG story that gets things right...)
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Optimus Kate
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by Optimus Kate »

I'm always down for inverted tropes. Maybe that's why I loved SDB so much. ;)

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lordoffiling
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by lordoffiling »

I take something different from this strip.

See, Didi didn't really know how true emotional connection worked until recently. All those bonding moments we're reminded of in the strip, plus however many other ones happened off-panel or simply didn't fit into this one (the play comes to mind), they were just things that happened with her friend.

But now Kiley has helped her to access the part of her that feels those connections, and those memories now have a deeper meaning to her.

Spidrift probably could find the TVTrope for the "the one you want has been in front of you this whole time" storyarc in a heartbeat, and I think that's what's happening here.
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Spidrift
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

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I could if it was there. Maybe. But "First Girl Wins" seems to be the nearest, which is close but not quite the same thing.
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bridgetvoid
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by bridgetvoid »

I still ship Zii and Eric to be totally honest. He actually seemed like he understood her aside from sex

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Spidrift
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

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He thought he did. I think he was treating her as some kind of fantasy rock chick/manic pixie dream girl. When the reality hit him in the face, he folded.
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Re: 22-08-17 Do you remember

Post by Don Alexander »

No matter what anyone else says, this is really cute... :x
Optimus Kate wrote:
Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:27 pm
Maybe if "awkward sad geek guy manages to capture the heart of sexy manic pixie dream girl who is way out of his league" wasn't the most boring, cliche, overplayed plot ever...
But.. but... =(( That is how my life needs to finally be saved!! :ympray:

Also, hiiiiiiii, Kate! :ymhug:
Spidrift wrote:
Wed Aug 23, 2017 7:48 am
What I do notice is that all these scenes are from relatively early in the comic's run. Zii and DiDi bonded as friends very quickly, then drifted apart a bit as they both got distracted by other stuff.
Hm, this might be a "Wheel of Time" effect. Character numbers have exploded, plotlines have diverged like sprouting fungi... A lot of people have complained that we rarely saw "the original trio" interact anymore.
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